A key feature throughout OpenBoxes is the ability to see the distinction between quantity on hand and quantity available. This helps with inventory management and product allocation, particularly when it comes to managing stock movements. Many users prefer to focus their attention on actionable inventory available for shipment. Given the importance of this feature and its widespread use throughout the system, its important that users are familiar with this topic.
In addition to providing enhanced inventory visibility, the quantity available feature in OpenBoxes gives users the ability to respond to demand based on inventory availability. This supply chain concept is commonly referred to as Quantity Available to Promise (QATP) or Available to Promise (ATP).
Before we show some examples of where you will see the quantity available feature in OpenBoxes, It's Important to highlight the differences between quantity on hand and quantity available.
Quantity On Hand represents the total quantity in inventory at a given location. It encompasses all product including lots or quantities that may be on hold, allocated to requisitions, or committed in some other fashion.
Quantity Available represents the uncommitted portion of the inventory. To determine this number, we take the quantity on hand and subtract any product that is on hold, already picked for stock movements/stock transfers, or that is otherwise committed and can’t be acted upon. Quantity available is very important, as it will determine whether you have enough uncommitted inventory available for your desired transaction.
It’s also important to add some additional insight on committed inventory, and at what point in the process inventory becomes unavailable for other requisitions. This concept is applied in the outbound stock movement workflow. To see a detailed breakdown of these steps, go to the Detailed Instructions by Page area of the Wiki. The Edit and Pick pages are where you will see the quantity available feature in action.
Let’s look at some visual examples of the quantity available feature in OpenBoxes:
Electronic Stock Card
The stock card is very useful to look at inventory levels and recent/pending transactions. It’s also a critical location for the quantity available feature. You will see the on hand quantity and quantity available in the status box on the left. In this example, the two quantities match. We have 200 arm slings in inventory and all 200 are available. This means that none of the inventory is on hold, allocated to requisitions, or otherwise unavailable. On the ‘In Stock’ tab on the right, you can also see the on hand and available inventory for each individual lot of this product.
In our second stock card example, we have an item where the on hand quantity and quantity available do not match. This is an important indication that some of the inventory is already committed elsewhere and is not available for other transactions. We have 80 units of this item on hand, but only 70 are available. This means we currently have 10 committed elsewhere. I’ve highlighted the lot which has commitments against it on the ‘In Stock’ tab below.
One of the most common inventory commitments occurs when product is allocated to outbound stock movements. If we want to understand where the 10 units of product are committed, it’s usually helpful to glance at the ‘Pending Outbound’ tab and see if it provides more information. In this case, we can see that 10 units from lot kio98 are already picked on stock movement 230KNF and therefore are not available for other shipments.
Reporting
In addition to the outbound stock movement workflow and the various views we covered in the electronic stock card, you will also see quantity available referenced in reports that are focused on inventory.
The bin location report is a good example of quantity available in practice. To find this report, go to Reporting > Inventory Reports > Bin Location Report.
This report is quite useful for seeing lot and bin level details for all items in inventory, and can also be used to compare quantity available vs. quantity on hand. See the columns in yellow below. The quantity available feature is also displayed on the In Stock report.
⚠ Data Maintenance and Quantity Available
Because the quantity available will impact your ability to allocate product to requisitions, its important to regularly manage your inventory and associated transactions. In particular, pay close attention to workflows that commit inventory.
It's advised to review outbound stock movements (as soon as product is picked it will impact your quantity available) as well as hold or recalled products on a regular basis. Otherwise, your quantity on hand may not be accurate, or you may be prevented from fulfilling some requisitions.